Life span of an HP Calculator

[John Garza (3665)]

As Geoff astutely mentioned, marketing plays a huge role in most companies. However, I believe the engineers at HP in the early days had more of a say than is typical in most companies. So some cost saving moves were avoided in favor of higher quality (and therefore longer lifespans). The life expectancy of a calculator depends on the model, which is dependent on the design, which in turn is related to the desired focus from a business perspective. And that focus can change over time as businesses continually re-evaluate the marketplace and profitability. Trade offs like: are we selling cheap machines for students to compete with Casio and TI, or high end machines for professionals?

As for me, my oldest machine is an HP-9100B of 1969 vintage. 100% functional including the card reader.

-John